Spy in the Wild Blooper Reel Features Adorable Filming Fails

BY Kirstin Fawcett

February 19, 2017

You may be familiar with the BBC Earth-PBS miniseries Spy in the Wild, a five-part documentary featuring up-close footage of wild creatures in their natural habitats. The show uses animatronic spy cameras to capture the way animals—elephants, sloths, meerkats, crocodiles, and more—act when humans aren't around. That being said, filming doesn’t always go smoothly, as you’ll see in the video above. Spotted by Laughing Squid, the blooper reel compiles occasions when both the lifelike robot cams and their real-life counterparts tripped, toppled from trees, or were simply adorably clumsy. Nature and technology can both be unpredictable—but occasionally, they can also be funny.

Spy in the Wild airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on PBS until March 1.

Giant squid have been the object of fascination for millennia; they may have even provided the origin for the legendary Nordic sea monsters known as the Kraken. But no one had captured them in their natural environment on video until 2012, when marine biologist and bioluminescence expert Edith Widder snagged the first-ever images off Japan's Ogasawara Islands [PDF]. Widder figured out that previous dives—which tended to bring down a ton of gear and bright lights—were scaring all the creatures away. (Slate compares it to "the equivalent of coming into a darkened theater and shining a spotlight at the audience.")

In this clip from BBC Earth Unplugged, Widder explains how the innovative camera-and-lure combo she devised, known as the Eye-in-the-Sea, finally accomplished the job by using red lights (which most deep-sea creatures can't see) and an electronic jellyfish (called the e-jelly) with a flashy light show just right to lure in predators like Architeuthis dux. "I've tried a bunch of different things over the years to try to be able to talk to the animals," Widder says in the video, "and with the e-jelly, I feel like I'm finally making some progress."

Once upon a time, Ireland was connected to a larger landmass. But that time was an ice age that kept the land far too chilly for cold-blooded reptiles. As the ice age ended around 10,000 years ago, glaciers melted, pouring even more cold water into the now-impassable expanse between Ireland and its neighbors.

Other animals, like wild boars, lynx, and brown bears, managed to make it across—as did a single reptile: the common lizard. Snakes, however, missed their chance.

The country’s serpent-free reputation has, somewhat perversely, turned snake ownership into a status symbol. There have been numerous reports of large pet snakes escaping or being released. As of yet, no species has managed to take hold in the wild—a small miracle in itself.